Double Jack D

At the risk of being soundly shot down, and accepting that the man is quite a detestable creature. The point that Wings is making on Nicola Resigning and forcing a Scottish Election in order to force the plebiscite indy ref appears to be a very strong one. Wings Over Scotland | How you do it

Lol, all recent evidence definitely supports that view. Gullan, Vaughan, Connell, Ross, Easton and Stanton have all shown attacking threat at various points in their Rovers career.

Really good article. Although I'm a fairly convinced Yes voter, I wouldn't class myself as a "nationalist". My preferred constitutional set up of the UK, and Scotland within, is a regional federalist type set up. Scotland would probably be one of around 10 regional governments. These would be responsible for pretty much all governmental departments with the exception of defence and foreign policy which would be centralised and elected through equal representation of all 10 or so federal areas. In any event, it's pie in the sky stuff, and given the realistic options in front of us I'm a fairly convinced and committed yesser. I thought the article was bang on. Labour are the only possible saviours of the union. However, for it to be a feasible option it will require them to make some pretty huge U-turns on major topics such as Immigration, Brexit, Devolution/ Scotland Act etc. The chances of the UK Labour party changing course and then becoming electable across the UK are virtually zilch.

As with any game in this league, anything could happen here. We really need to take something from the game. A defeat puts a 10-point gap between us which would be hugely difficult to pull back. The shout above to go to a back 5 might be a good one. O'Riordan has been a class act but he has made a few errors against experienced, physical strikers. Akinyemi is likely to force errors out of him and is clinical enough to make them count. We do have our own threat however and I'd love to see us starting with 2 up top. Feel like there will be several goals in this one.

Canny grumble at that draw at all. Winnable tie, somewhere good to go on the train and a decent crowd will be expected. Bring it on...

I certainly do. I think the entire top 7 as it stands should have top 4 aspirations at this stage. Given our transition this year and the much-reduced budget I will be still quite happy if we finish a comfortable 7th however, I don't think there is much between the top 6 or 7 teams in this league and we have as much a chance as any of being in the play-off mix at the right end.. I don't anticipate much business for us in January but if we retain our loan signings and Vaughan, Gullan, Frederikson and Lang can get match sharp for the run in then that will be like 3 or 4 new signings in the area of the pitch we have struggled most in.

Agreed, a thoroughly professional performance against a well drilled, but ultimately poor quality, team there to defend for 90 minutes. I thought the tempo of our passing was really high throughout and ultimately tired Talbot out meaning gaps came available in the last 30 minutes. Also, other than one heavy touch in the first half from O'Riordan, the defence totally snuffed out any threat. Talbot could still be playing now and not have scored. There was nothing for Rovers fans to boo in that performance.

Fair point, wouldn't disagree.

Democracy works when it doesn't require those who win elections to "seethe" or, more worryingly, " take to streets". This demonstrates why the mechanism for this needs to be clarified soon. Once it reaches the stage of "seethe" or "taking to streets" we could be in a situation that is difficult to reverse from. Whilst we may not be there yet, the continuing denial of democracy does risk this spilling into the situation you mention. No-one on any side wants that.

I'm aware of that, and it has no bearing on the point. Votes from other nations within the UK parliament being used to keep Scotland within the union is not sustainable for UK democracy.

I think the Westminster process for voting for a referendum needs to be clarified. Simply saying that Sunak or Starmer or whoever in future can block Scottish expressed democracy based on votes from elsewhere isn't sustainable for the Union. I could understand Scots voting No, I'm really struggling with Scots who are happy to have an English parliament have sovereignty over us. Some of the mental gymnastics currently being exercised by Scottish Unionists justifying this is quite perplexing.

This is deliberately muddying the issues. Every vote is democratic so long as the winners get to implement what they were voted in for. In a Scottish context this isn't happening. This isn't sustainable. Worryingly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, there seems to be more sympathy within pro union voices in England for the democratic deficit Scotland faces. Given that UK law has determined that the Scottish Parliament doesn't have the power over constitution, it is now up to the UK parliament to establish the process by which Scotland can choose to voluntarily end the union. The most obvious answer to that is for a majority MP's from scottish constituencies to vote for a referendum then it should take place.

No, it really can't unless the rest of the UK allow it. Have you not been paying attention? I agree that we had our chance in 2014 and chose to decline it. I also agree that, ordinarily, 8 years isn't a lengthy enough period in which to revisit it. However, there has been substantial change in the UK situation over that time that what we all voted for in 2014 has shifted so much that a new assessment of Scottish opinion would be valid. That and the fact that we are effectively in an unsolvable constitutional log jam that something has to give, for the UK as a whole. The status quo isn't tenable and we're all going to suffer for as long as the powers that be try and maintain it.

Not sure it can be considered a great result if a country cannot establish its own independence via a democratic event contained within its own borders. History has shown that you cannot suppress democracy without consequences, I sincerely hope we can ensure the future path of our country, both UK and Scotland, can keep us on a democratic path that resolves this. The status quo isn't tenable.

Ticket allocation sold out. 21st Century Rovers fans scooping up tickets faster than the old typewriter can produce / pigeons can deliver them. Gonna pump these Victorian diddies!

Yes, yes I am...

Rovers gonna pump these 20th century diddies.

Certainly wouldn't have predicted back on the eve of the season starting, with no central defenders on the books, that after 14 games we would be above Dundee, ICT and Partick Thistle.

Same here, might be more arsed later in the week, we'll see.

Hope Zanatta plays and I hope we give him a decent reception. Without his early season form last season I hate to think where we could've ended up.

I'd probably prefer to use the Euro to the pound if I'm being honest.

Quite mind boggling how many people still genuinely believe that being able to batter kids would reduce violence in society.

Only my 2nd game of the season, thought we were very impressive and miles better than we were at any point last season. Thought Connell up front was superb. Connoly and Stanton were a constant threat and Spencer and Brown looked solid at the base of midfield. The back 4 never put a foot wrong and Liam Dick was immense. Also had a wee lump in my throat when Vaughan came on, think I would've bubbled like a Bairn if he'd scored.

Lol, was thinking this myself. Watched his hat trick against the pars again recently following the news that he played in the bounce game and was thinking "get off him" at all these big lumps like Nat Wedderburn piling on him after the goals. A wee handshake, fist bump etc would be braw. No piling on, knee slides etc necessary

Man, I'm equally fucking nervous and excited about Vaughan coming back!